A group of C Company soldiers pose with a German Messerschmitt
Bf 109 fighter that had been shot down by the RAF near Medenine in western Libya. From
left to right: Staff Sergeant Hiki Kohere (Rangitukia), Claude Te Marangai (Waimana), Captain Peter Awatere (Tūpāroa), Ngahiwi Maraki (Waiporo Bay), Wiremu Puha (Te Araroa), W. Morgan (Pungarehu), Jack Hema (Wairoa).
On 6 March 1943 the Māori Battalion helped defeat a German-Italian counter-attack at Medenine. The New Zealand Division, supported by British and Free French troops, then moved south-east to Ben Gardane before beginning a long, sweeping 'left hook' inland around the rugged Matmata Hills to the Tebaga Gap in Tunisia.
Reference:
Alexander Turnbull LibraryReference: DA-2998
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New
Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any
re-use of this image.
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